Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
She threw her head back and barked a laugh. The well-rooted fear had grown
a flower and bloomed as laughter. “Loom-master Anga,” she hissed over exposed
points.
“Anga will do fine.” A grin to show shovel shaped teeth. “I thought you'd catch
on - saves us both the trouble of introductions and lies about how much either of
us knows. Besides, what I'm suggesting is a trade of information. Public records,
things like the gin'tala listings, I've seen. A little more, but very little. I want the
a'Genn Net records to do with the Lady.”
“And offer what in exchange?”
“My efforts, Empire's efforts, to maintain the status quo.”
“Do you speak for the Empress?”
“Well, no.” The grin widened. “Not exactly. Any more than you do for the Eight
of the Spann Protectorate. Let's just say, we're on the spot and they're not.”
“What in particular did you want to know? Did you have some parameters in
mind? Or did you think to keep the limits to the amount of information we provide
as open as your efforts on our behalf would undoubtedly be?”
“Boundless,” he said. “I like that.”
She liked him. “Did you know that the High Priest Sarkalt gave us everything
they had, including their spins, in exchange for Lord Gennady's support during
the Opening?” He hadn't, she saw that clearly in his sharpened look. “Add what
was taken from the other Anga's flitter...”
The humor was gone instantly; the black eyes past being sharp, they were
fueled with a wanting that chilled her. “How much did that Anga bring with him?”
She put one hand over Awillykh's, still resting lightly on her shoulder. What did
he make of this? “In a flitter? Working notes, I suppose would be as good a
description as any. And heavily, how shall I put it - protected. Probably no more
than you brought with you this time, expecting some kind of Net support
wherever you ended up. You would have expected it then.”
His eyes were still measuring her. Protected? Scrambled, she could have said.
The Ladybug records were more useful.
Probably scrambled, his eyes said. He blinked and relaxed. “Nobody expected
the diamond.”
“No, I suppose not. And now? Did you bring what you took off the Net from the
Lady's flitter? You mentioned an exchange...”
“Didn't I also mention useless?”
“Not in conjunction with that. Tell me, how was the diamond when they left
it?”
“Falling apart, but I think you knew that.”
“As a possibility.”
“Isn't it all?” He chuckled.
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca